Picture the scene.

It is August, 2016. The week before the new League Two season gets underway.

Newly-appointed Colchester United head coach John McGreal is addressing the assembled media at a sultry Florence Park, as he prepares for his first-ever game as a Football League manager.

One of the main messages from the newly-appointed boss?

That every one of his squad will have a part to play during the course of the season, if they are to achieve success.

Fast forward six months.

McGreal is standing in the technical area in the falling sleet and snow at the Weston Homes Community Stadium, as his depleted Colchester side take on Barnet.

Having been robbed of the services of more than a dozen of his players, he must also deal with the double blow of losing two of his central defenders with little more than a quarter of an hour of the match gone.

How poignant McGreal’s summer prophecy about his whole squad being needed proved to be – and how impressive the manner in which he and his squad dealt with the misfortune that came their way.

Losing central defenders Frankie Kent and Lloyd Doyley to injury in quick succession against Barnet was cruel in the extreme.

As McGreal wistfully said after his side had recorded a commendable victory, you couldn’t make it up.

Tony Flynn’s treatment room will resemble a casualty ward this morning, as the U’s head physio does his best to get the club’s plethora of injured players back out on the pitch.

But the fact that Colchester can lift themselves into the play-off places with a win over Crawley Town tonight despite the number of absentees they have had this season is testament to both McGreal and his squad.

If the U’s are to achieve success this season, it seems as though they might have to do it the hard way.

But if they can make it through the storm, then the prize that might come their way as a squad in the summer will be even more rewarding.